The Apostles' Creed, sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief—a creed or "symbol". It is widely used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical Churches of Western tradition, including the Catholic Church, Lutheranism and Anglicanism. It is also used by Presbyterians, Moravians, Methodists and Congregationalists.
A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook. Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts ; written melodies are extra, and more recently harmony parts have also been provided.
Anglican church music is music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy. It mostly consists of pieces written to be sung by a church choir, which may sing a cappella or accompanied by an organ.
Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. Although the term liturgy is used to mean public worship in general, the Byzantine Rite uses the term "Divine Liturgy" to denote the Eucharistic service.
The Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) is a worship book and hymnal used by several Lutheran denominations in North America. A supplement, With One Voice (WOV), contains additional hymns and service music. The LBW is sometimes called the "green book", as opposed to With One Voice, which is bound in blue; or Service Book and Hymnal, which is bound in red; or The Lutheran Hymnal, which is also bound in red, with a simple gold cross.
Concordia Publishing House (CPH), founded in 1869, is the official publishing arm of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Headquartered in St Louis, Missouri, at 3558 S. Jefferson, CPH publishes the Synod's official monthly magazine, The Lutheran Witness, and the synod's hymnals, including The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), Lutheran Worship (1982), and Lutheran Service Book (2006). It has published a comprehensive edition of Johann Sebastian Bach's Orgelbüchlein, complete with short analyses of each chorale. It publishes a wide range of resources for churches, schools, and homes and is the publisher of the world's most widely circulated daily devotional resource, Portals of Prayer. Over 850,000 copies of this resource are printed and distributed quarterly. Their children's books, known as Arch Books, have been published in millions of copies. Concordia Publishing House is the oldest publishing company west of the Mississippi River and the world's largest distinctly Lutheran publishing house.
Dominus vobiscum is an ancient salutation and blessing traditionally used by the clergy in the Catholic Mass and other liturgies, as well as liturgies of other Western Christian denominations, such as Lutheranism, Anglicanism and Methodism.
The Divine Service is a title given to the Eucharistic liturgy as used in the various Lutheran churches. It has its roots in the pre-Tridentine Mass as revised by Martin Luther in his Formula missae of 1523 and his Deutsche Messe of 1526. It was further developed through the Kirchenordnungen of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that followed in Luther's tradition.
The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) is one of the official hymnals of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Published in 1941 by Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis, Missouri, it was the LCMS' second official English-language hymnal, succeeding the 1912 Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book. Development of TLH began in 1929 as a collaborative effort of the churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America and became the common hymnal for both the LCMS and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). Containing 668 chorales, hymns, carols, and chants, plus the liturgy for the Common Service, Matins, Vespers, the propers, collects and prayers, the suffrages, canticles, psalms, and miscellaneous tables, TLH became an extremely popular and beloved worship resource in the Lutheran church in North America, and attempts to succeed it in more recent years have often met with strong resistance.
Lutheran Service Book (LSB) is the newest official hymnal of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC). It was prepared by the LCMS Commission on Worship and published by Concordia Publishing House, the official publisher of the LCMS. It is the fourth official English-language hymnal of the LCMS published since the synod began transitioning from German to English in the early 1900s. LSB is intended to succeed both The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) and Lutheran Worship (LW) as the common hymnal of the LCMS. Supplemental and companion editions to the hymnal were released throughout the end of 2006 and into 2007. The hymnal was officially approved by the LCMS at the 2004 LCMS National Convention in St. Louis. It was officially released on September 1, 2006, but many customers who pre-ordered the hymnal received their copies several weeks earlier.
Hymns Ancient and Modern is a hymnal in common use within the Church of England, a result of the efforts of the Oxford Movement. Over the years it has grown into a large family of hymnals. As such, the Hymns Ancient and Modern set the standard for the current hymnal in the Church of England.
Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) is the current primary liturgical and worship guidebook and hymnal for use in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, replacing its predecessor, the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) of 1978, and its supplements, Hymnal Supplement 1991 and With One Voice (WOV).
The Service Book and Hymnal (SBH) was used by most of the Lutheran church bodies in the United States that today compose the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) prior to the publishing of the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) of 1978. In ELCA circles, historically, the Service Book and Hymnal has been called the "red book" while the Lutheran Book of Worship has been called the "green book." The newest ELCA hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) is also red in color, and has apparently been dubbed "the cranberry book".
The Lutheran Hymnal with Supplement is the second official hymnal of the Lutheran Church of Australia, first published in its present form in 1989.
The United Methodist Hymnal is the hymnal used by The United Methodist Church. It was first published in 1989 as the first hymnal for The United Methodist Church after the 1968 merger of The Methodist Church with The Evangelical United Brethren Church. The 960-page hymnal is noted for many changes that were made in the lyrics of certain hymns, so as to modernize the hymnal.
Lutheran Worship (LW) is one of the official hymnals of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Published in 1982 by Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis, Missouri, it is the LCMS's third English-language hymnal and was intended to replace The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) (1941). However, dissatisfaction with various revisions has led numerous congregations to continue using the previous hymnal, and according to a 1999 LCMS Commission on Worship survey, The Lutheran Hymnal is still used by 36% of churches in the Synod as their primary hymnal. The publication of another new hymnal, Lutheran Service Book in 2006, has restored many of the former hymnal's features in the hope that more widespread use can be achieved.
Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal (CW) is the newest official hymnal of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). It was prepared by the WELS Commission on Worship and published by Northwestern Publishing House, the official publisher of the WELS. Christian Worship was intended to succeed The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) as the common hymnal of the WELS. In 2008, the Christian Worship Supplement (CWS) was released, containing several new orders of service, psalms, and hymns.
The Common Service Book (CSB) is a worship book and hymnal originally issued jointly by the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States of America, the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America, and the United Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South in 1917, and, after the merger of those bodies into the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA) in 1918, by that body.
The ReClaim Hymnal is a worship book and hymnal used by several Lutheran denominations in North America. It was published in 2006 by ReClaim Resources. ReClaim Resources then became part of Sola Publishing,, the publishing arm of Word Alone Ministries which serves the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) and the North American Lutheran Church (NALC); currently, Sola Publisher is the sole publisher and distributor of the hymnal. The project comes out of an effort by its authors "to develop an independent worship resource securely grounded in the Lutheran liturgical tradition of worship and singing".
